DES MOINES, Iowa -- A special printing of 5,000 extra copies to handle the expected demand for keepsakes marked the demise of the 75-year-old Des Moines Tribune today.
The evening newspaper will merge with the morning Des Moines Register in a new expanded edition beginning Monday. More than 100 of the 1,030 employees of the Des Moines Register and Tribune Company were laid off -- including at least 50 reporters and photographers.
Employees working on the last editions Friday wore T-shirts marking their paper's end: 'Des Moines Tribune: 1907-1982.'
Charles Capaldo, a Tribune staffer who will become an editor in the new Register, said many reporters will be at their desks Saturday even though it's their day off.
'I want to be here to help them put it out,' he said. 'It's a part of me. It's a passing of an era, a sad day.'
Company President Michael Gartner said the layoffs were the hardest part of the merger.
'We've put in a generous severance pay program and we're helping them find jobs and financing their retraining,' he said.
The Tribune, with an afternoon circulation of more than 83,000, began running into difficulty three years ago and cut back its state-wide circulation to the Des Moines area. Persistent rumors of a closing were fueled last spring when the company announced first quarter losses of $618,000.
A harbinger of the closing came in March when the Minneapolis Star called it quits and merged with its sister, the morning Tribune. Both the Minneapolis and Des Moines papers are owned by the Gardner Cowles family so it came as no surprise to staffers when executives announced in June that the Tribune's days were numbered.
Other newspapers ending publication this year include the Philadelphia Bulletin, the Cleveland Press, the Sarasota, Fla., Journal and the Buffalo, N.Y., Courier-Express.
The Duluth (Minn.) Herald and the Duluth News-Tribune merged in August; also in August, the Tampa, Fla., Times ceased publication and merged with the Tribune, and two weeks ago the Oregon Journal in Portland, Ore., ceased publication and merged its staff with The Oregonian.
